Rotherham manager Paul Warne has confirmed his club tried to sign loan striker Kieffer Moore on a permanent basis during the August window after the 25-year-old, the joint-highest scorer in the top four English divisions with 13, had made a strong start to his spell at the New York Stadium. The League One club are resigned to losing their star man in January with Ipswich boss McCarthy having said he will cut short his loan.

“The chairman agreed we could put an offer in,” Warne told the Sheffield Star without revealing the figure bid. “It was rejected and they let us know he wasn’t really for sale and that they wanted him out on loan and to see where it took him.

“Mick McCarthy has said he is going to take him back in January and I don’t think there is anything more certain than that.

“It is written in cement. It is like one of the Commandments if Mick McCarthy says that. There is no way on this earth he will change his mind.

“Kieffer will go back, hopefully plays for Ipswich, they don’t see what we see, so he can play for us again. They might sell him before he even kicks a ball, but I have been led to believe he will go back and play.”

A number of other clubs, Plymouth Argyle, Port Vale, Stevenage and Partick Thistle among them, were interested in signing Moore on loan in the summer and could again be keen in January.

“I could have got Kieffer in on a permanent, but it was a bit of a gamble,” Warne added. “A lot of people told me it was a bad gamble at the time.

“It could have gone that way and I’d have fallen flat on my face. The loans are there for giving players game-time and now I have got to find something of a similar ilk.

“Every day in management is a challenge and replacing Kieffer is just one of those challenges.

“Since he started scoring and Ipswich knocked our bid back, we have been looking for replacements because it is inevitable that if you are scoring every week in League One then your parent club will want you back. It’s not like we have woken up today and only just realised it is going to happen.

“I was going to treat the lads to a cardboard cut-out of him and put it in the foyer over Christmas, and to tug at his heartstrings as well.

“I was sat at the training ground looking at clips. I was showing Kieffer who I am trying to get to replace him and I could see a little tear in his eye!

“When he goes back to Ipswich, I hope it goes brilliantly for him and he plays in the Championship for the rest of his life. I will be over the moon for him. He’s a great kid. He deserves to play at the highest level. But, from a selfish point of view, I hope he comes back and plays for me.

“It’s frustrating he is going back, but it shows how well he has done. If every loan player who came here got called back all the time, it would be frustrating but it would show we have done something right and we would get a good reputation.”

Moore, who cost the Blues £20,000 when he was signed from Forest Green Rovers in January, is contracted to Town until the end of the season with the club having an option for a further season.

Photo: TWTD

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I hope for Moore's sake that he isn't recalled before the season ends. He was playing non-league football this time last year and is now having the season of his career with a real shot at becoming the league's top goal scorer! It would be heart-breaking for him to not be given the opportunity to see that through.

I agree IpswichToon. The decent thing would be to let him see out his season - both for the player and for Rotherham. Scoring goals isn't exactly an issue for us. Bringing him back in would just cause disruption I think. Give him til the end of the season then next season give him the number 10 and tell him to do it all again...

I think he warrants a shot. Even if he doesnt play he will retain his value now though the summer. Give him a shot and if he cant step up he can move on with his career and we should see about 450k maybe more in profit.

He must want to play at the highest level he can..... now's his chance.

How many of us would have said sell him in the summer? How much stick would we be giving Mick now if we had?

We all know Mick will recall him and then he will hardly play. He will be brought on with ten minutes to go in games we are losing and his confidence will slowly ebb away again. I hope I'm wrong but I really can't see us playing to his strengths. Leave him at Rotherham til the end of the season then sell him for a tidy profit. Will be best for all parties

While I find myself in agreement with superblue's prediction for how Moore would be used, I think things could depend on whether our front quartet stays fit. Waggy's fine but Didz is out for a spell and we have to hope he doesn't suffer a loss in form - or indeed become fragile again - while Garner's also got to come back from a knock and Sears really does look to have lost his way in this setup.

I'd hope we don't need forward reinforcements in January but we might yet - and if so, we really should first be giving a chance to our own player in Moore.

....agree that he shouldn’t come back...both for the club but more importantly for him...while he is a surprise big fish in a small pond cash in £500k would be great ...and for bottom end champ team or a high flying Lg1 team he then , for them , is a Worthwhile risk ...comes back to us and MM sits him as a bench warmer then we,ll get a packet of crisps and snickers bar for him at end of season when he hasn’t been so prolific at this level .....balance is do we take the money and run on Moore ..or do we risk having to sell more than one of our rising stars to balance the books

Not so sure , after reading reports, that he is that great in the air. Hope he comes back and plays well and scores plenty of goals. Mcgoldrick's contract is up at the end of the season so Mick wants to see how he plays in the championship. I hear they have a really good fullback so maybe we could do a swap?

If he wasn't already ours we'd all be saying we should be looking at signing him as many championship clubs have signed league one top scorers and been successful, I think he will come and be an impact sub and if he grabs that game time then who knows from there